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July 7, 2011

The Top Google Plus Tips and Tricks

1Adding People to Circles

Circles are the way that Google Plus keeps track of the people you want to follow. When you put someone in a circle, it means two things:

(1) Their updates will now appear in your stream. The default setting on your stream is to see everyone's updates, but you can also choose to just see updates from the people in a particular circle by clicking the name of that circle in the left-hand column.

(2) They can see your posts and updates, provided you chose to share those updates with a circle that includes them.

Bear in mind, a person doesn't need to have you in a circle in order for you to add them to one. They can choose not to see updates from you while still allowing you to see their posts.

2 Green Means Public, Blue Means Limited

When a post is marked "Public," that means anyone can see it, even people you have never added to any circles. The word "Public" on these posts appears in bright green so it's easy to spot. (Green means Go Out to the Whole World!) If you have decided to only share the post with certain circles, their names will appear underneath the post in blue.

3Add Photos, Videos and Links Easily

To add media or links into your Google Plus stream, you can click the photo, video and link buttons like any normal person. OR, you can just find the link or the photo or video you want to post and drag it right into the Share box.

4Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Save Time

Here's a quick rundown of some of the quick keys built in to Google Plus:

When reading any post, just hit Enter to automatically open up the comment box. That ought to save you a few seconds!

5 Mentioning Specific People

If you want to shoutout someone by name and make sure they see it, you can tag them easily. Just add a "+" or "@" in front of their name and Google Plus will prompt you to tag them. This will alert the person you have tagged that someone has mentioned them, and it will allow anyone who sees the post to hover over their name to get profile details, or add them to a circle.